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Why Artemisia?

For those of you more observant than the average lump with a screen, Artemisia is not my real name. Yes, yes, I am remembering the countless lectures that took place during middle school when my innocent class was told of the dangers of revealing your identity on the internet, but my real name really isn’t that interesting. Artemisia is badass. That happens not to be the only reason though.

It turns out, the name Artemisia stems from a long line of badasses, the most well-known of which is the famous painter, Artemisia Gentileschi. She was an incredible woman, known for her shocking depictions of women as more than the pure objects that they always seemed to be in Baroque paintings. Many scholars believe that this was caused by Artemisia’s rape as a mere teen, and the wildly misogynist system that victimized her needlessly. I wish I could say that times have changed. However, Artemisia produced a series of empowering images of women, some with women in a position of power, others showing the true nature of the messed up society that she lived in. These painting are amazing and are always worth a look or ten.

The other two badass Artemisias, both from a place called Caria, were leaders of a nation located in the Persian Empire. Unfortunately, my expertise on their exploits extends about the length of the summaries of their Wikipedia pages, but they are some of the few examples of ancient women leading armies, so clearly I am missing out by knowing very little about them.

This has been a brief history lesson with Artemisia. Thank you, and good night.